Panamanian toddler with three legs travels to Calif. for medical treatment

A toddler from a rural village in Panama was left with three legs after doctors performed a surgery to separate her from a conjoined twin. This week Ana Paula arrived in Los Angeles to undergo several highly specialized medical procedures and surgeries, according to the Daily Mail.

Ana Paula and her sister were connected at the pelvis at birth and underwent a separation surgery when the girls were 20 months old. Sadly, Ana Paula’s sister didn’t survive. Ana was left with three legs, three kidneys and reproductive issues.

The 22-month-old girl is being treated at the Shriners Hospital in Los Angeles. Only one of Ana Paula’s legs is functional and the two non-working legs will be removed. Doctors will later fit her with a prosthetic and Dr. Phoebe Scott-Wyard said in a press conference, “I think she’ll be very functional as a walker, at the very least with crutches or with the arm crutches or something similar.”

The cost of Ana Paula’s medical treatment is being covered by Shriners Hospitals and the Children of War Foundation.